United We Stand, Divided We Fall: 911
by LoveandLearn
Summary: Derek and Addison as residents, living in New York and they witnessed the single most horrific day in recent American History; September 11th, 2001. What effect did it have on them? One-Shot


Okay, so I was really bored a few nights ago and I was wonder if anyone had written a story about Addison and Derek on 9/11. And I thought about it and realized it would work because she didn't show up till 2005 or something which means in 2001 they were together, and if they were together they were in New York which means they witnessed 9/11, especially since they're doctors.

Anyway, So I dediced that since 9/11 is coming up I would do a one-shot of them on that day.

* * *

It was one of those mornings. One of those morning that you just don't want to get out of bed because you know nothing good is going to happen on that day. When the alarm on their cell phones when off simultaneously they both opened their eyes and reached for their cells phones located on the night stand beside them.

"I don't wanna get up." Addison said.

"Neither do I." Derek answered. He sat up and threw his feet over the edge of the bed. He looked out the window, to see a perfectly blue sky. The sun had just risen, illuminating the day.

"I just feel like something is gonna happen and I really don't wanna be here when it does."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know. I just... I have this feeling. I can't explain it."

"Okay..." he replied and got out of bed without questioning her any further.

At 8 o'clock on the dot they both arrived at the hospital. They had dropped their 4 year old daughter, Adrian at pre-school. Derek stepped out of the car and stood beside it, waiting for Addison to take her prada purse from the back seat. She walked toward him and took his hand. He held it firmly while they walked into the building. The sound of her heels against the tile of the hospital let everyone know that the Shepherds had arrived.

After getting off the elevator onto the proper floor they went their serapte ways. They began doing rounds and examining patients and before it was even 8:30 they were too busy to even remember their thoughts.

Then it happened at 8:46 am. A sound crash was heard. Addison was in the middle of an ultrasound when she heard the peircing noise that cause both her and her patient to jump.

"I'm sorry." she said and stopped what she was doing. She walked over to the window to see the twin towers crumbling in front of her eyes and smoke rising from the ruins. "Oh my... Fuck!" she exclaimed without realizing that she was still with a patient.

"Dr. Shepherd?" her patient said, sounding uncomfertable with the situation at hand. "What's going on?"

"I uh- I have to go. I'll be back as soon as I can." Addison answered and ran out of the room. By the time she reached the nearest nurses station, it was on the news. Everyone was gathered around the TV, watching as if they were hypnotised by it. Addison stood in the very back of the crowd, she was only able to see the corner of the screen but she clearly heard what was being said. It was a terrorist attack and after that she couldn't hear anything more. She felt and an arm around her waist and turned to see Derek behind her.

"What's goin on here?" he asked.

"Didn't you hear that?" she replied, "Didn't you look outside?"

"I just got back from the morgue. They needed a consult on a autopsy. I haven't see or heard anything."

"There was a terrorist attack on New York. A plane crashed through the Twin Towers, Derek. I literally saw it crumbel into peices and burn."

"Shepherd!" they heard someone yell. They both turned to see the chief of staff running toward them. "Two of you are on the tramua team, get you stuff, change let's go..."

"What?" Addison asked. "What stuff? Why do we need to change?"

"Stethoscope, gloves- stuff, Montgomery. Get it?"

"Actually it's Shepherd." Derek corrected.

"I don't have time for this! The ambulances are waiting for you two."

"Ambulances?" Addison realized. "You mean we're on the dispatched trauma team.. not the trauma team in the ER."

"Yes! Change into scrubs, make sure you have your ID in site, get anything you might need and GO!"

"No... no, no, no, no, no." Derek repeated over and over again. "Addison's not going anywhere."

"Yes, she is." he answered firmly.

"She can't sir. We weren't going to tell you until she was showing and we couldn't hide it anymore. Addison's pregnant, sir. She can't breathe all that smoke and ash, not good for her or the baby." Derek answered.

"Fine. Shepherd, have it your way. Go, change."

"Thank you for understanding." Derek replied and walked toward the locker room. Addison ran after him. She walked into the locker room to see it filled with people, all preparing to leave. Derek stood in front of his locket, he had already taken his shirt off and was pulling the scrub top over his head.

"Derek..." she said from beside him. "You shouldn't have done that. I would have been fine."

"We're not taking the chance, Addison."

"Yes we are taking a chance, Derek. You're going. What if something happens to you? I can't raise a baby and Adrean on my own. I can barely handle Adrian as it is."

"I'm gonna go, and I'm gonna get Adrain, okay?" he answered. "That's why I'm going. I know this may sound horrible. I know there are people that need me, but I care about my daughter more than anyone else. I need to go find my daughter and get her here, where I know she'll be safe."

"What if something happens to you, Derek?"

"Nothing will happen to me. I'll never leave you alone."

"What if." she emphasized.

"Than I need you to know that I love you more than you can understand. And I need you to tell the baby that I loved him... or her and I need you to tell Adrian that I did this for her."

"Derek... please don't-" he cut her off.

"This conversation is over, Addison." he stated as he pulled on his scrub pants and secured his ID around his waist line. "I love you." he kissed her and left the room. She stood there, looking into his locket which he had left open. Inside she saw the clothes he had just taken off stuff inside. She removed them to neatly fold them when she noticed something else inside the locker. The platinum band that she had slid onto his finger the day they'd gotten married. The clothes fell from her hand and she reached in and picked it up. It slipped onto her middle finger although it was way to big for her. She glanced at her hand, her own rings glimmering against her husbands. She went into her office and placed the ring on the corner of a silver frame encase a picture of herself and Derek on the day of their wedding.

Two hours past and she still hadn't heard from him, nor had any one seen or heard of him. The ER was bursting with patients that she had the responsibility to care for but couldn't because her mind was in all the wrong places. She stood beside a gurney, a chart in her hand. Phyiscally she was there, but mentally she was somewhere else.

"Dr. Shepherd?" her patient asked, She was a teenage girl who was 28 weeks pregnant. She'd been at the public high school a few blocks from the towers.

"I'm sorry..." she snapped back into reality and looked down at the chart. "Have you had any contractions?" she read the next question of the form and continued to work as normally as she possibly could.

Every half an hour she tried to call her daughter's school but no one would answer the phone. And she'd call Derek's cell phone which would go straight to voice mail. And after that, her mind would be back in the gutters, fearing the worst.

Before she knew it, the day was over. It was dark and the patients were still coming in but she couldn't take anymore. She needed to take a sleeping pill and turn off her mind. She stood in front of the chief of staff's office, her hand on the knob as it had been for the past few minutes. Finally she worked the nerve to knock and twist the knob open.

"Dr. Montgomery...." he looked up from the papers stacked in front of him.

"Shepherd. " she corrected.

"What can I do for you?" he ignored her remark.

"I was hoping you'd heard from my husband. He's not answering his phone and he was suppose to get out daughter but I haven't heard from him and he schools not responding to my calls."

"Oh..."

"What? What do you know?"

"All the trauma units I spent out have returned, Addison. All expect for Derek and his crew."

"What?" she repeated, her voice unstable and on the verge of tears.

"I'm sorry, I was hoping you'd heard from him. I was about to come find you to ask you."

"That's not possible. You have to have been able to reach someone from that unit."

"I'm sorry, I haven't been able to. I promise you, I have made countless efforts."

"What did you do!" she screamed. "Why would you send my husband out of all the other fucking people in the hell hole? There are hundreds of SINGLE family-less child-less people in this hospital and you choose my husband. One of about.... what twenty doctors employed here with a family. What the fuck is that about?! Now he's dead, I'm a fucking widow, my daughter is probably dead with him and my baby is left fatherless with a mother in depression. Is that what you wanted?!"

"I'm sorry, Addison. He's is the best neuro guy this country has ever seen."

"I don't give a fuck! I don't care! I'm leaving. I might not come in tomorrow.. or the next day for that matter."

"Okay." he answered and watched her walk out. She tried to calm herself as she walked toward her husband's office.

"Dr. Montgomery-Shepherd." she heard his secretary say. "I'm sorry."

"Yeah." was the only thing Addison managed to reply. She didn't know what else she could say. She walked past the secretary and opened the door to his office. She stepped in to the office and immediately saw what she was looking for. The car key was right on the desk next to the mouse of the computer. She walked closer to pick it up when the pictures caught his eye.

He had the same picture from their wedding that Addison had on their desk. He also had a picture of Adrian asleep on a pool chair while she was trying to "tan". Addison remembered taking that picture, it was a year ago in Jamaica where they vacationed. Right next to that picture there was there was their unborn baby's first and only picture (the sonogram). It was tiny, almost the size of a pea. But the fact he had it there was touching, he fact that every time he sat at his desk he wanted to see it. It was proof that he really was an amazing husband and the most amazing father in existence.

She stopped herself from thinking about it any further and took the keys and left. She left without out looking back. For the first time that day she stepped outside the hospital. She could hear screaming, she heard sirens and saw the smoke. It was like something directly out of her worst nightmare. Something from the most terrifying 'end of the world' based movie. Would she even able able to get home through all that chaos.

She got into Derek's Lexus and put to key in the ignition. It was her first time driving his car, she never went near it. She hated even sitting, she always told him that her Benz could kick his Lexus's ass. Sitting in his car, on his seat she could almost feel his presence. Soon Addison realized that she couldn't ignore the thoughts. She drove home in silence, not even bothering to turn the radio on or put a CD in. She pulled into the driveway and parked.

The house was Dark and quiet. She turned on the light and saw the mess they had made that morning, usually she wouldnt leave for work until the house was perfectly clean but they were running late and she had no time to clean uo. The flour Adrean and spilled all over the kitchen counter and floor while she tried to help Derek make pancakes. And the dishes that Derek left piled in the sink. Their bedroom was a mess, the bed wasn't made, the T-shirt she was wearing was on the ground. Derek had thrown a bunch of shirts on the bed while he was trying them on. Their bathroom was just as horrible, the straightening iron was still plugged in both of them left their deodrant on the counter, Derek hadn't even bothered to close the cap of his. His tooth brush was in the sink and the toothpaste was beside it oozing out.

It was all disgusting. She hated the fact that if she didn't pick up everything after them for one morning it would reach that point. Usually, she would have started cleaning everything. She found it helped her unwind and relax but she couldn't. She couldn't becuase everytime she saw the mess she thought of Derek and Adrean.

She took a long shower to help her relax and threw the wet towel in the pile of dirty clothes she had gathered by the door so she could do laundry. She put on Derek's ridiculously oversized Columbia t-shirt and got in bed. For hours she couldn't sleep thinking that her daughter and husband where lying somewhere lifeless while she had made no effort to find them.

And somewhere along those thoughts she fell asleep but her nightmare continued on into her dreams.

Around 4 am she her banging on the front door. Addison got up and ran downstairs, barefoot and still half asleep. She flicked the light switch at the bottom of the staircase to illuminate the foyer. She opened the front door to see Derek standing there in filthy scrubs, carrying a sleeping child in his arms. She opened the door wider so that he could walk in.

"Derek..." she breath out in relief.

"I told you I would be fine." he answered and passed their sleeping daughter into her mother's arms. Addison took the child and cradled her against her chest.

"Is she okay?"

"She's got a few cuts, scrapes... stretches, bruises but nothing at all serious. It'll heal in a few days so I doubt we've got anything to worry about."

"What about you?" Addison asked and leaned in to kiss her husband with the sleep child between them.

"I'm fine, babe." he promised. "But there is a part of me that would love for you to kiss it and make it all better." he smiled

"Perv." she hit is arm. "Tonight of all... I don't think it's even legal to have sex tonight. They might take our citizenship from us and send us to Antarctica or some god forsaken place like that."

He followed her up the stairs, into their's daughter's room. He watched Addison wake their daughter by kissing her forehead. Adrian opened her eyes to find herself in her mother's arms.

"Mommy." she whispered and tightly wrapped her arms around her mother's neck. "I didn't think I would ever see you again."

"I know, honey. I was scared, too." she replied. "You feeling okay?"

"Uh-Huh." she answered. Addison set her down on the changing table that hadn't been used since Adrian was potty trained almost 2 years prior. She slowly slipped her of the dirty ripped clothing to give her a bath. She looked over her daughter's tiny fragile looking body and saw the bruises and the cuts that Derek had warned her about.

"Does this hurt, baby?" she asked her daughter before applying pressure with her hand to a bruise on her bare abdomen. Adrean cried out in obvious pain and pushed her mother's hand away. "I'm sorry." Addison quickly said and took her daughter into her arms to stop her crying.

"Mommy..." she sobbed again, obviously still afraid from everything she's seen that day.

"I'm right here honey. Don't worry you're okay, every thing's okay." she promised as she set her down at the edge of the tub while she turned on the water and waited for it to fill. Once she'd tested to make sure the water wasn't too hot or cold she turned her attention back to the crying four year old who was staring at her with Derek's blue eyes. "Stop crying, honey."

"I can't. I'm scared." Adrian admitted and jumped off the edge of the tub toward her mother who was kneeling before her.

"Don't be scared, sweetheart. It's over, okay? Daddy and I would never let anything bad happen to you again." she ressured. She picked up her daughter and placed her into the warm water. "Do you wanna tell me what happen?"

At first Adrian shook her head, but soon she changed her mind and nodded. "We was in class." she began with a sniffle wiped her nose with the back of her hand. "My teacher was reading us a book bout' a Caterpillar who ate a bunch of stuffs and turneded into a butterfly. That book that Daddy used to read to me." Addison smiled, in reassurance and to show her daughter that she was listening. "And the we heard this loud sound! And after that the ground shaked and it was realllly loud. Peoples was screaming and there was stuffs on fine! And a bunch on buildings breaked and people got stuck under! Cept me' I hided and I didn't think anyone would find me! I was so scared."

Addison was scarred just listening to the story, she couldn't imagine what the child had gone through. She poured water over her head with a small pink bucket and then poured the Johnson's shampoo into her palm before messaging it into her daughter's light brown waves. Adrian shut her eyes while her mother poured more water over her head to wash away the sudds.

"How long were you hiding before you found Daddy?" she asked while she lathered the body wash into a cloth to scrub the dried blood and dirt away from her daughter's skin. Adrian shrugged her shoulders and backed away, further from her mother not allowing her to touch her body. "I won't hurt you again, Adrian. I promise."

"You can't touch my owwie." she stated firmly.

"We've gotta wash the owwie so it doesn't get infected, honey. But it won't hurt." she swore

"Pinky Promise?" her daughter asked.

"Pinky promise." Addison answered. Adrian came closer and stuck her pinky toward her mother who intertwined her pinky with her daughters. Adrian smiled and stood allowing her mother to scrub all the debris on her body.

"What happen, Mommy?" she asked curiously.

"What?"

"Today." she cleared. What happen? Why did that happen?"

Addison dropped the sponge into the water and looked into her daughters eyes. "Remember the two big tower right by to your school?" she asked, Adrian nodded. "A plane crashed through them and those two buildings crumbled apart and fell and caught on fire." she gave the most vague answer she could.

"Oh." Adrean replied while her mother opened the drain and wrapped a towel around her wet body before carrying her out of the tub into her bedroom.

"Can I sleep with you and Daddy tonight?" she asked as Addison dressed her in her pajamas.

"Of course you can, honey." she answered. "Go ahead, I'll be right there." she added. Her daughter ran off toward her parent's bedroom. Addison placed the towel and the dirty clothes in the hamper and rinsed the tub before returned to her bedroom where Adrian had already fallen asleep.

Derek took a long shower while his wife cared for their daughter. He stepped into the his massive closet and pulled on a pair of clean boxers and a t-shirt. When he came out he saw his daughter walk into the room.

"Mommy said I can sleep here tonight." she cleared. Derek nodded and pulled away the covers of the bed so she could get in. Addison walked in and instantly ran into his arms and didn't let go.

"I was terrified, Derek. I couldn't think about anything else. You have no idea how horrible I felt."

"I know, I'm sorry." he held her tighter, reassuring him that she was right there.

"What happen? Why were you late? It's past 4 am, Derek."

"I know, Addison. You should have seen what it looked like out there. It's horrible, I have never seen so much pain, so much blood, so many bodies... just lying around. People stuck under ruins crying for help, dying in front of my eyes. And for the most part, I couldn't do anything about it." he explained. "When I finally got to her school it was a little too late. I mean, you know it's not too far from the Towers... so anyway, her teacher was dead. And so were a majority of the kids, it was horrible. Adrian's the only one from her class that survived. I can't begin to tell you what I felt when I saw that first lifeless little boy underneath all that shit. All I could think about was Adrian."

"Where was she?"

"She was hiding.. underneath the teacher's desk... which was the only thing that remains standing somehow. It was such a relief to see her, Addison, I felt like the world had been lifted off my shoulder. She was terrified. Terrified doesn't even begin to describe it. And when I saw her she looked pale, and burdened. She lying there. For a second I thought she had died too. I didn't know what to do. So I ran over and grabbed her thinking I'm holding my dead child in my arms for the last time when she moved... and I heard her whisper my name into my ear and I knew she was okay."

"I called you, a million times." she said.

"My phone fell and I never went back for it." he answered, still holding her in his comforting arms while she sobbed. "It's okay, Addison. It's over. It's all over." he promised.

"Adrian--" she couldn't finish her sentence because he cut her off to finish it for her.

"Adrain's fine, I'm fine. Most importantly you're fine, which means the baby is too. We're all good." he finished for her.

"I told you I had feeling about today."

"I know you did." he answered and kissed her. "And next time you have a feeling that the country is going to be the victim of terrorist attack, I urge you to speak out." he joked. He let go of her and got into bed while she went around to her side of the bed and got in. She moved closer to her daughter. Derek turned to face them and draped his hand over his daughter and rested it on his wife's waist.

"I love you." he whispered before she drifted into sleep.

"I love you, too.." she replied just as she was about to fall asleep.

"What was today?" he asked. "September 11th-right?"

"Mhmm." she replied, trying to stay awake to hear what he had to say.

"This is like the most horrible thing to happen to his country since Pearl Harbor. Just think about how many family were broken apart because of this today. Think of everyone that died, of everyone who's dying. Of all the wives sitting at home wondering where their husbands are, all the parents hoping their children weren't victims. Think about it for a second, Addie. We survived it. Adrian and I... we could have died and we survive barely harmed." he said. "We survived." he repeated once more. "If anything this brought as closer together rather than tear us apart. If we can survive this, Addison, we can survive anything as long as were together."

Addison turned breifly and picked something up from the nightstand on her side. She rolled back on her side facing Derek and held the platinum wedding band up for him to see. "Want it?" she asked.

"Of course I do." he answered and tried to take it from her. He reached toward her hand but she pulled it back and took his hand in her grip. She slid the ring onto his finger. "I left it in my locker because I knew you'd find it. If anything did happen, I wanted you to have it so you could remember me."

**8 years later**

Derek and Addison had welcomed another daughter, Katie 5 months after the tragedy that put the country in mourning. Three years later their marriage began to fall apart after Derek dictated himself to his career. In 2005 the infamous event occurred. Addison was caught in bed with Derek's best friend. He left her and his child and moved to Seattle and Addison followed within two long months.

September 11, 2009

Derek leaned in to the sink in the scrub room to wash his hands for his upcoming surgery. Addison stood beside him, leaning against the sink.

"Don't do this, Derek. Don't do this again." she begged.

"Do what?!" she replied on the verge of yelling.

"Don't throw yourself back in work. Don't forget me... and your children. Don't throw our marriage away over your job.. and you're 12 year old girlfriend."

"Ex-girlfriend." he corrected.

"Not from I've been seeing lately."

"There is nothing going on, Addison." he answered. "I'm not throwing myself back into work. It's just been a busy week."

"You haven't been home in 4 days. The kids think you left me... again. You could at least call them."

"I will, tonight. I'll be home. And I'll take all of you out for dinner, any place you guys wanna go,okay?" he promised and took a sterile towel to dry his hands.

"Okay." she replied about to walk out.

"Addison." he called, she turned back. He reached out to take her.

"Don't touch me." she warned.

"Why not?"

"You'll have to scrub in again." she answered.

"So? I'll do it, I don't care." he pulled her closer and kissed like he would before they're marriage fell apart. He put his arm around her waist and kept her lip locked between his own. "I love you, Addison." he said as he pulled away. "I love you more than I can ever tell you, more than you'll ever believe. Remember what I told you 8 years ago, today?"

"No, I don't." she replied honestly, trying not to fall for his charm.

"We survived 9/11 together." he reminded her. "Remember how we felt that day?"

"Yeah."

"We over came that..." he flooded her head with the memories that she'd tried so hard to forget. "If we could get throught that, than we'll get over Mark and Meredith. My mistakes and yours. Because we're.... we're us... We're Addison and Derek."

"We are." she agreed, and looked into his eyes with the most beautiful smile he's ever seen.

"And we don't give up."

"We don't." she repeated, sounding almost like a question.

"Nope." he replied. "If I let this come between... if I let this break us than my whole life has been a waste. I might us well have been on the first floor of the towers and had the whole thing piled on top of me."

"Derek..."

"Remember the quote of that year was "United We Stand, Divided We Fall." Well, when 9/11 happened the whole fricken country was divided. And So were we. I mean, we didn't want to admit it but we were drifting and trying to hold on to one another. As sad as it is, It took 9/11 to wake us up. It made us realize that we're united for life and divided we'd never survive..." he explained while he scrubbed in again.

"Yeah, I guess you have a point."

"Yeah, I do. So always remember that. You're my spine... my back bone. Without you, my existence is pointless."

"United we stand, divided we fall?" Addison questioned, almost as if she couldn't believe what he was saying. He nodded and pecked her lips.

"United We Stand, Divided We Fall." he replied firmly, leaving no room for doubt before walking into the OR and smiling at her before making the opening incision.

* * *

Random Story, I don't know if anyone cares.

I was in 4th grade on September 11th, 2001. I was sitting in class when it happened and the principle came in and told us that something along the lines of a bombing happened in New York. They weren't certain what it was yet but they knew it was an explosion and that the twin towers and the pentagon were attacked. At first I didn't understand what that meant, or why it was such as big deal. That night I remember watching the News and my mom was panicking because my Dad wasn't home. When he walk through the door, I felt so relieved that I can't even explain it. All the worst thoughts were running through my head. Sure, I was in LA and it happened all the way across the country in NY, but still. You can't help but feel that paralyzing fear. I remember watching the footage of the towers burning down. It was something I could never forget. I can still remember seeing the towers fall and burn and the debris all over the city. I remember watching the news minute by minute for weeks and that's all I would here. And to this day, it traumatizes me to think about it.

Please Review  
And if you would like to share you're 9/11 story, you're more than welcomes too.


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